The Brown County Community Treatment Center opened in October 2009. It handles the majority of the county's mental health patients. Submitted

Written by

Even to a veteran of the mental health field, the facts were staggering.

A person having a mental-health crisis in Brown County would have to tell his story to four or five people before receiving treatment. More than three hours might pass as two police officers took the individual, in handcuffs, from facility to facility for multiple evaluations. Anxiety levels that had been high from the start might have shot through the roof.

"Things were taking too much time, too much energy," said Kevin Lunog, behavioral health services manager for the county Human Services Department. "And it's way ...